Effective Legal Writing

This week’s discussion is on “Effective
Legal Writing.” Please respond to ALL of the following questions for full
credit. Failure to address any of these question will result in points
deductions. In order to earn full credit for this question you MUST complete the
e-Activity and use the source you researched to complete this response. Your
response must be in your own writing. Cutting and pasting from other sources is
not acceptable. All posts will be scanned for plagiarism at the end of
the week using SafeAssign. You should prepare your ideas and use
peer-reviewed academic sources outside to SUPPORT your ideas. Websites,
encyclopedias are not acceptable sources.

Prepare the following response:

Compare and contrast
the Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion (IRAC) method to the synthesis of
cases and authorities’ method. Explain the value of each legal writing strategy.
Justify your position.

From the e-Activity,
choose three (3) of the ten (10) tips, and examine the primary manner in which
each tip could impact a new paralegal, in comparison with a seasoned paralegal.
Provide a rationale for your response.

RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT:

1. Three tips for new paralegals:

1. Avoid the Temptation to Write In Legalese.

A paralegal has to avoid the temptation to write in
legalese. Phrases such as “with regard to,” “with reference to,” and “as
regards” are examples or features of legalese. Instead of writing in legalese, a
legal researcher should use day-to-day preposition “about.”

2. Do Not Over-Quote Cases

A paralegal should no over-quote cases. He or she
should rather paraphrase the cited quotation. This is a paraphrase from the case
Feist Publications Inc. v. Rural Telephone Ser­vice Co. Inc., 499 U.S 340
(1991):

To be protected by copyright, the work has to be
original to the author but does not require novelty. As long as the resemblance
is not due to copying, a work can still be original even if it resembles another
work.

3. Learn to Be a Critical Reader of Your Own
Writing

A legal researcher has to be critical of his or her
own writing by using reader-based outline. Reader-based outline is a way of
being a critical reader to one’s writing. It can be done by copying and pasting
the topic sentence of each paragraph into a separate document. Example of this
outline is as follows:

* A paralegal has to avoid the temptation to write
in legalese.

* A paralegal should no over-quote cases.

* A legal researcher has to be critical of his or
her own writing by using reader-based outline.